


Demons

by pixiedurango



Series: Richard Armitage - Sensual Visual Prompts [3]
Category: Lucas North - Fandom, Richard Armitage - Fandom, Spooks | MI-5
Genre: Angst, Domestic, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Sharing a Room
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-29 20:50:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17210705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pixiedurango/pseuds/pixiedurango
Summary: While on an investigation, Lucas has to live in for an undefined amount of time with a civilian who is not very thrilled to have her space confiscated by the MI5, even though it comes in such handsome form.





	Demons

**Author's Note:**

> This belongs to a collection of prompts I opened up for my followers on tumblr to choose a character portrayed by Richard Armitage and a collection of sensual/sexy gifs I put together merely for this purpose.  
> After the tumblr purge many of the stories got banned/deleted/hidden which I assume due to the nature of the gifs since the stories itself are rarely really explicit.  
> This is why I eventually decided to transfer my works to my Ao3 which I didn't do for the sheer number of Fandoms/Shows/Characters those stories belong to. My admiration for Richard Armitage let me write all those stories and I hope people will like it.  
> The gifs will be posted along with the stories so readers might decide whether I caught the spirit or not.

“And how can  _I_ be of service now?” Her arms had been crossed in front of her chest, blocking the doorway into her flat with hard eyes and a stubbornly clenched jaw.  
  
Of course she had been… hesitant. But Lucas had no time to waste and so he just handed her the legitimization papers to read. He had all the rights to do that. For state security. And she would have to obey.   
  
“Read!  _Please_.” He had tried hard for a friendly tone. There was no need to either scare or intimate her. Everything would be easier with… cooperation. “Maybe you want to offer me a tea while you take the time to read the decree. We better not… discuss this in the stairwell.”

She had almost ripped the paper from his hand, but hesitantly stepped aside so he could enter.   
“Kitchen’s on the left. You can sit there. While I read.”

Snappy and harsh but at least she had offered him a chair. And put a mug of steaming tea in front of him to serve himself with sugar and milk, which he both ignored. Black and bitter was how he used to drink his tea since returning from Russian prison.

“Thank you. For the tea. And the reading.” There was no reason to be rude and he could tell her face was relaxing as some tension left her body when her shoulders dropped.

“Seems I have no choice?” Her eyes were slowly leaving the papers, piercing his but still voicing it as a question.  
  
“I’m sorry.”

“No you aren’t. But that’s alright, I guess.” She had shrugged and tried to ignore the fact that he had beautiful eyes. Blue. And sad. He was, in general, ridiculously handsome but that could not make up for the fact that he just literally confiscated her and her apartment for some… government bullshit. Not even with a defined timescale, only just obviously as long as it would take. 

Her home was her safe haven and so she was not very keen to have any stranger inside it, no matter how handsome.

He had leaned back sitting on her kitchen chair, trying to figure out whether she meant trouble or not. Had to give her that she was a keen observer. Taking no bullshit but knowing when to… just roll with a situation she was not able to change. 

Attractive in an unconventional, tomboy way. Sporting a pixie cut and nerd glasses, not the kind of woman he usually would waste a second look to. But the way she stood tall (even by being physically rather short) made him do it anyway.  _‘Attention, Lucas! Stay focused’_  He had to warn himself.

“Andi.” She had finally nodded and stretched her hand across the table with a rather unamused smirk. “Think we should at least properly introduce each other… since we’re supposed to become roomies of some sort?”

“Lucas. Lucas North.” No need for aliases here, he decided as he shook her hand.

~  ~   ~

This had been 4 days ago. He had been able to convince Ros that there was no need to be more than one agent invading Andi’s little space and that he would be able to handle all the necessary observations alone. Thus it had been only him with two suitcases full of high tech equipment and a basic amount of spare clothes and toiletries to invade her limited space for an undefined amount of time.

Not that this made things easier but somehow they got along. Him sitting either in front of the screen of his laptop or checking the telescope for the target who was living across the street. Only when said target left the house, a mobile surveillance team took over and he had the chance to rest.

She had taken a few days off because she couldn’t stand the idea of a stranger sitting in her place while she was off to work and so they spent most of their waking time together.   
Questions about his work he had been brushing off until she simply stopped asking them but other than this they got along surprisingly well. She was well read and rather funny at times, meeting his broody, tensed mood to summon a smile upon his face once in a while. Being a pretty good cook she obviously found the unexpected company reason enough to start witching in the kitchen and more than once a dish had left him overly full but with the grin of a happy puppy.

Working regular night shifts the target, who was under suspicion of plotting a political act of terror, usually left for work around 7pm and would return around 5am.   
This would be the time Lucas’ field team would take over and he finally could relax a little. Still mostly attached to his phone or laptop but not longer obliged to pay undivided attention was this the time he and Andi actually started to talk and over time even their sleep schedule synced.   
Yet - of course - he still occupied her couch though it was slightly too short for him to completely be able to stretch out.

Actually they were  _living_  together and it went smoother than she had ever assumed. Lucas tried not to bother her but, of course, only having two small rooms, a kitchen and a shared bathroom made it difficult to actually avoid each other.   
First it was odd but even though in the beginning Andi was less than excited of being involuntarily dragged into a MI5 operation, after only a few days she felt she would miss him once his assignment would be over.

The first time Lucas realized that something had changed was roughly after a week.   
Fingers accidentally brushing against each other when she handed him a mug. Catching her, looking at him from the corner of his eye while they were sitting in opposite corners of her couch. Scolding himself for leaving his eyes on her forms way longer than it was appropriate but catching a glimpse whenever he could. Especially when she slipped from the shower in her satin morning gown clinging to her body. Laughing together over silly stuff they both found amusing. Feeling oddly at home while well knowing he shouldn’t.

“What does your girlfriend say when you disappear for weeks?” Totally out of the blue she asked one night but he only shrugged.

“Was married once. W _as_. Should say it all…” He replied, trying a little too hard to sound as indifferent as possible. “What about you? Your boyfriend might not like that you have some random bloke sitting on your couch 24/7”

“No one there who’d give a damn.” She gave back and grabbed for her coffee mug to conceal that this was some sore spot for her and before she could think it fell from her lips. “So stay as long as you want.”

Lucas grinned sarcastically.  
“You might regret  _that one_  though…”

“You think?” 

Her eyes were on him now. Open and clearly putting something on the table he was not sure whether it was a wise thing to get into. But the tension over the past days and the subtle flirting they both had indulged in was not to deny and Lucas was weak enough, lonely and frustrated about it more than not to simply dive into the moment.  
  
“Actually yes…” The smile he gave her was one of the rare ones that actually made it up to his eyes. “First I might hang out on your sofa for weeks and then I might disappear for what could be months.”   
  
Holding out his hand to invite her to come closer after this statement was a bold thing to do.

But she was accepting it. Him. And what he was offering. Sliding closer, to sit next to him instead of the distant corner of the couch, holding hands at first but soon he was gently drawing her close for a first kiss.

Regarding the amount of cruelty and violence Lucas North had not only witnessed but endured, his touches were almost too soft. His fingers ghosting across the skin of her cheeks, her neck. Resting their foreheads together, gently nuzzling closer until their lips finally met for a soft first taste of what could be.

“I’ll know, you’ll be off to save the world.” She whispered when their lips finally parted. With a little chuckle against the skin of his neck where a rapid pulse revealed that he was not unaffected by what was happening here between them.  

They both felt no wish to get back into distance anymore, clearly needing more proximity.

Lucas gently squeezed her closer into his side but was incapable of giving an actual answer to her halfway joking statement. She had no idea about how dangerously close she was with what she had meant as a cute joke and he had no intention to fill her in. There were things he simply was not allowed not talk about and would not want to, either.

But at least for now she was not prying on what else his job might include. Andi seemed capable of accepting what she already knew about him and he decided to just leave it this way. There was so much more but Lucas was no idiot to pull all the horrors in the open.

Pondering options, his analytical mind still overriding his overflowing emotions, Lucas tried to figure out what he should do. Finding a way between what he  _wanted_  and longed to do and the things that were his duty. There was no way this new…  _development_  would interfere with his mission. But in the hours when others took care of the target he was free to do what ever he wanted as long as he would not shut down his phone in case of emergency. 

And all he wanted was to explore this new thing with her and where this could go.   
 _  
'No rush’_  he told himself and hesitantly let go of her when it finally was time to rest. Shagging a girl at first occasion might have happened before though one-night-stands actually were not his thing. But also he really needed to keep things from getting awkward here. 

Lucas eventually tried to fold his long limps halfway comfortably onto her sofa for another uncomfortable night but for no apparent reason it felt less annoying than the nights before.

Only the quiet longing to feel her warm body again but keeping it as a sweet treat for a later time and the realization made him smile before he fell into a light slumber while the blue light of his always open screen was drawing flickering ghost lights onto his face.

~   ~   ~

She woke to a groan and a quick glance over to her alarm clock told her she had only slept for about two hours. Lucas’ mumbling voice from the other room, more groans and other sounds that clearly spoke of nightmares and terror.

This had happened before but never as intense as tonight and of course, things had changed by now. When she never had dared to walk over and check on him before, now she felt it would be alright if she’d invaded his space, offering comfort.

Padding over into her living room the cold light of his flickering computer screen was guiding her. Spread out over all the sofa he was sleeping and dreaming in a desperate restlessness that wrenched her heart. One of his long legs hanging over the edge, arms tightly wrapped around himself and the crumpled blanket which tossing and turning had left him completely entangled into.

“Lucas.” She whispered trying not to startle him but she doubted her voice was even getting through right now so she slowly stepped closer until she could sit next to him at the rim of his makeshift bed. Her hand hesitantly reaching out to gently caress his face covered in cold sweat, repeating his name in a low voice until he finally woke up. Startled and disoriented first but once his eyes found hers, he visibly was calming down.

“Just… a bad dream.” He tried to explain and his voice was hoarse. Lucas’ hand reaching out for hers, finding it covering his cheek and he cupped it to feel her warmth. His pulse still was raging after the fading images of a cold tiled interrogation room and the terrifying memory of shackles around wrists and ankles and the moment when the water on his face was about to numb and black everything. He rolled to the side and curled himself around her sitting form next to him. “I’m alright.” He mumbled and knew she did not believe a single word.

But she only let him catch his breath without a single word before she softly nudged him to make space until she could slip next to him. Lucas let her and even let off of the crumpled blanket he still was clutching against him as to a life line. Softly pulling it straight again and throwing it over both of them she offered him to snuggle closer into her side. And he almost desperately took the chance, wrapping his arms around her to keep her near. She knew nothing and maybe this made it so comfortable.   
  
If it was for him, Lucas North would stay in this moment forever. But of course he knew it was impossible. He only would take what he could get.   
After all he’d been through, he told himself, he should be allowed to have at least a little peace.


End file.
